Traficant may forgo CCA house, friend says

By Ed Runyan

It’s possible that the former congressman won’t be leaving the federal prison system until September.

YOUNGS-TOWN — A friend of James A. Traficant’s says it’s possible that the former congressman, who’s in federal prison, will not be coming to Youngstown in March to serve three months at a halfway facility run by Community Corrections Association.

Sybille Oelschlager of Schuyler Falls, N.Y., who talks to Traficant by telephone for up to 15 minutes “every weekend,” said Traficant has told her he doesn’t want to go to CCA.

“He requested a different place, and it wasn’t allowed,” she said. She doesn’t know what other facility he requested or why it was not approved and doesn’t know whether there is a chance that he will be granted the opportunity to go somewhere else, she said.

Oelschlager said there are many halfway houses in the area where she lives in upstate New York near Lake Placid and wonders why there isn’t another facility in the Youngstown area where Traficant can serve the three months.

On a radio show on 1330 TALK-WGFT featuring Vindicator columnist Bertram de Souza and Dr. William Binning on Saturday, Oelschlager said she thinks Traficant will not be coming home in March.

She told de Souza and Binning that Traficant wants to complete his time behind bars, meaning he would remain in federal detention until his current release date of Sept. 2, 2009.

In April 2002, a jury in Cleveland found the nine-term Democratic congressman guilty of all 10 counts he faced — including racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.

The jury, after a 10-week trial, believed that he took kickbacks from high-level staffers, used other staffers as farmhands on federal time, accepted cash gifts and services from businessmen, cheated on his taxes and tried to influence witnesses.

Oelschlager, who shares Traficant’s interest in painting, said Traficant calls her from the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., where he is incarcerated, just about every weekend.

Traficant, 67, of Poland, is allowed to talk for up to 15 minutes at a time, she said. He is still painting, she said, and apparently playing guitar and singing.

“Apparently, he has a pretty good voice,” she said. When asked if she had ever heard him sing, she said, “Actually, he told me [he has a good voice].”

She has previously said she met Traficant in a chance meeting with him in Washington, D.C., in 1980, and they had kept in touch.

In explaining her relationship with him, she said, “I’m interested in helping. The Bible says love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Traficant was once incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution at Ray Brook, N.Y., about 30 minutes from Oelschlager’s home. She never visited Traficant in prison, however, she said.

In March, Traficant will have served six years and seven months of his eight-year sentence.

At one time, Oelschlager tried to help Traficant sell some of his paintings on the Internet.

runyan@vindy.com